During the chaotic handoff, login details for the official @Twitter account weren’t shared, Platformer reported.
Twitter staff were locked out of the company’s own social account for 12 days, according to Platformer.
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During Elon Musk’s chaotic Twitter takeover, login details for the company’s official account weren’t shared with new leadership, according to reporting by Platformer.
Sources told Platformer, a newsletter run Casey Newton, former editor of The Verge, the login details for the official @Twitter social account were among the details lost in the fray.
The Twitter team finally accessed its account on Wednesday, after about 12 days, Platformer reported, though the account has not posted since October 13.
Laid-off Twitter employees are suing the company saying they were promised a range of severance benefits.
The lawsuit says they were assured these benefits would hold after Elon Musk bought Twitter.
However, recently laid-off employees say Twitter reneged on the promised severance pay.
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Laid-off Twitter employees suing the social media platform say the company — now owned by Elon Musk — reneged on previously promised severance benefits.
The fresh allegations were made in updated court filings to the San Francisco federal court on Tuesday, which were also seen by Insider.
According to the Tuesday update, Twitter’s management previously said at several all-hands meetings, wrote in a recent FAQ, and stated in a merger agreement that employees would get at least the equivalent of the originally promised package if they were laid off after Musk acquired the company.
Twitter employees “reasonably relied” on this promise in the weeks leading up to Musk’s purchase and chose not to look for jobs elsewhere, the lawsuit shows.
However, Twitter later told employees affected by November’s mass layoffs that they would only get one month’s base pay after their termination, the updated lawsuit alleged.
This claim appears to contrast a November 4 tweet from Musk, which said that all exited employees were offered three months’ severance.
Musk has worked every day to find new ways to screw over Twitter staff, attorney says
In response to queries from Insider, Shannon Liss-Riordan — the attorney who filed the lawsuit — said Musk is counting an extra two months of severance pay because some workers were told on November 4 that they would be laid off in two months’ time.
These employees, which include three of the plaintiffs, were locked out of their company accounts on November 3, but were told they would be paid until January 4, 2023, their lawsuit said.
“This pay is not severance pay,” Liss-Riordan wrote in the lawsuit, accusing Musk of using this period of payment only to comply with federal and state labor laws. The WARN Act, or the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, is a federal law that requires businesses with 100 or more employees to give 60 days advance notice of mass layoffs or other work disruptions.
Liss-Riordan filed an emergency motion on behalf of the five employees on Wednesday evening. It seeks to compel Twitter to tell laid-off employees about the pending lawsuit before it can reach any separation agreements with workers.
The motion accused Twitter of trying to get employees to release all claims on their compensation benefits in exchange for their one month of severance pay.
Twitter’s former top four executives — Parag Agrawal, Ned Segal, Vijaya Gadde, and Sarah Personette — stood to gain a collective $88 million from being fired by Musk. On October 31, Musk deniedreports that he fired the top executives “for cause” in order to avoid giving them hefty severance payouts.
Musk did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment, which was sent after-hours. Twitter’s no longer employs its communications department.
Antonov Co., the state-owned Ukrainian manufacturer of the An-225 cargo plane, said in a statement posted on Facebook that design work has begun on a second unit of the aircraft. The An-225, also known as “Mriya,” was destroyed by Russian forces in an airfield near Kyiv in February. The rebuild is currently in the design stage, the company wrote on Facebook.
“According to available expert estimates, currently there are about 30% of components that can be used for the second model of the aircraft,” the company said, adding that the exact details of reconstruction will only be released “after Ukraine wins this war.”
The An-225, which was in service for over 30 years before its destruction, was built in the Soviet era. The aircraft first took flight in 1988. It was built to transport the Soviet spacecraft Buran before being used to charter international cargo flights.
The reconstruction costs of the 330-tonne An-225 are estimated to exceed 500 million euros, or $500 million, according to Antonov’s statement. It’s the heaviest aircraft ever built.
The destroyed Ukrainian Antonov An-225 “Mriya” cargo aircraft, which was the largest plane in the world, among the wreckage of Russian military vehicles at the Hostomel airfield on April 8, 2022 in Hostomel, Ukraine.
Alexey Furman/Getty Images
“The work on the machine is ongoing in a secret location,” Eugene Gavrylov, Antonov’s general director, told German newspaper Bild.
Construction of the original An-225 started in Kyiv, but the maintenance and manufacturing of its parts was eventually moved to China.
Ukrainian state defense company Ukroboronprom initially estimated the reconstruction of the aircraft to cost more than $3 billion and said it would take at least five years, according to a company statement on February 27.
Antonov Co. did not explain how the aircraft’s reconstruction would be financed. Gavrylov said the company plans to sell airplane merchandise to obtain additional funds and attract sponsors, per Bild.
Back in February, Ukroboronprom said it expected Russia to finance the rebuild.
“Our task is to ensure that these costs are covered by the Russian Federation, which has caused intentional damage to Ukraine’s aviation and air cargo sector,” it said in a February 27 statement.
Antonov Co. did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Rep. Ken Calvert is running against Democrat Will Rollins in California’s 41st Congressional District.
The 41st District includes the city of Corona, Calvert’s hometown.
Calvert, who has a history of opposing same-sex marriage, faces Rollins in a district that includes Palm Springs, a city that has a large LGBTQ community.
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Republican Rep. Ken Calvert faces off against Democrat Will Rollins in California’s 41st Congressional District.
Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. local time, or 11 p.m. EST.
2022 General Embeds
California’s 41st Congressional District candidates
Calvert is a senior member of the House Committee on Appropriations. First elected to the US House in 1992 to represent California’s 43rd Congressional District, Calvert is the longest-serving Republican of the state’s congressional delegation and one of the most senior members serving in the legislative body.
Prior to his time in Congress, the Riverside County Republican served in leadership roles with several local community volunteer organizations, including the Corona Chamber of Commerce, the Corona Rotary, and the Corona-Norco Family YMCA.
Calvert, who clinched former President Donald Trump’s endorsement along with endorsements from the California Republican Party and the state’s entire Republican House delegation, previously opposed same-sex marriage but joined 46 of his GOP colleagues to vote in support of the Respect for Marriage Act, which would codify the right to same-sex marriage in federal law.
Rollins, Calvert’s challenger, is a former federal prosecutor who focused on counterterrorism and counterintelligence cases in Southern California. He decided to run for Congress after witnessing the January 6 attack on the US Capitol and working on some of the insurrection cases. A gay man, Rollins lives and campaigns with his partner.
Rollins trailed behind Calvert in the nonpartisan primary, securing 30.4% of the vote to Calvert’s 48.2%. Both men advanced to the general election. A month after the primary, Rollins was added to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s “Red to Blue” program, which pumps resources into tight races that national Democratic party leaders believe can be flipped from Republican to Democrat.
Voting history for California’s 41st Congressional District
California’s 41st Congressional District, located in Riverside County, covers a swath of the Coachella Valley and includes Palm Springs, Lake Elsinore, and parts of Corona and Riverside.
The district lost solid red areas such as Temecula and Murrieta while gaining blue territory, most notably Palm Springs, the first city in America to elect an all-LGBTQ city council.
The money race
According to OpenSecrets, Calvert has raised more than $3.3 million, spent $3 million, and has $730,000 on hand, as of October 19. His opponent, Rollins, has raised more than $3.3 million, spent more than $2.5 million, and has $755,000 cash on hand.
As of late October, more than a dozen super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups have together spent more than $900,000 to advocate for or against candidates in this race, including during the race’s primary phase. Most of the spending is in support of Rollins.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday urged Gov. Ron DeSantis not to run for president in 2024.
She said that running for the White House would equate to DeSantis abandoning his state.
“Please support President Trump,” she told DeSantis and any would-be presidential candidates.
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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday told Florida Governor Ron DeSantis not to compete with former President Donald Trump for the White House, as speculation abounds that the two GOP heavyweights could square off against each other for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
Discussing Trump’s potential campaign for the White House, Right Side Broadcasting Network host Brian Glenn told Greene at the rally: “If anyone steps into the political ring and tries to challenge President Trump as far as being the Republican nominee for 2024, we feel like it’s political suicide. This is his party, this is his race to run.”
“Absolutely, I think that it’s clear and obvious,” Greene responded.
“What we need in this country, Brian, is we need strong Republican governors like Ron DeSantis,” she later said.
“We need strong Republican governors to fight, stay in for eight years and save their states, not to abandon their states and try to run for president or any other big position,” Greene added.
“My message is for everyone, anyone that’s considering running for president in 2024 against President Trump, please support President Trump,” she said.
DeSantis has in recent months been considered to be a strong frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, though he also hasn’t announce a campaign. Greene’s rhetoric that DeSantis would “abandon” his state by running for president has also been used by his gubernatorial opponent, Democratic nominee Charlie Crist.
Twitter owner Elon Musk said the social platform needs to become “the most accurate source of information.”
Critics pointed out that Musk shared an inaccurate story about the attack on Paul Pelosi last week.
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey also weighed in on the conversation.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Sunday tweeted that his goal was to make Twitter “the most accurate” media platform, but critics say the billionaire has made decisions on the platform that suggest otherwise.
“Twitter needs to become by far the most accurate source of information about the world. That’s our mission.” Musk tweeted Sunday evening. He also shared a similar sentiment in a November 2 tweet, in which he said Twitter would become the most accurate news source “without regard to political affiliation.”
Critics were quick to point out that days earlier Musk had linked to inaccurate news following the October 28 attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, in which an intruder broke into her San Francisco home and struck Paul Pelosi with a hammer. Pelosi was released from the hospital Thursday after being admitted with a skull fracture following the attack.
“There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye,” Musk replied, linking to a site with the headline, “The Awful Truth: Paul Pelosi Was Drunk Again, And In a Dispute With a Male Prostitute Early Friday Morning.”
“Literally a week ago today, Musk posted a link to a fake news website (that once suggested Hillary Clinton was dead and had been replaced by a body double),” Hasan wrote on Twitter. “Worse, he then deleted that tweet without explanation or apology. But sure, his ‘mission’ is accurate information.”
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey also replied to Musk’s tweet, asking “accurate to who?”
Musk replied to Dorsey, saying that he would base accuracy on “the people of Twitter via Community Notes,” which is a feature that allows Twitter to add context to posts they consider misleading.
Musk did not provide detailed information on how he plans to improve accuracy on the site.
Dorsey also tweeted that making the site “more informative,” rather than the “most accurate” would be a better goal for the platform.
Elon Musk and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez feuded this week following his takeover of Twitter.
After actor Mark Ruffalo got involved, Musk told him not to believe everything the lawmaker says.
Ocasio-Cortez had accused Musk of messing with her account for saying something he didn’t like.
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Tesla billionaire Elon Musk on Saturday tweeted at actor Mark Ruffalo not to believe everything Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says, capping off a week of conflict between the congresswoman and Twitter’s new owner.
Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, criticized Musk on Wednesday after he said he planned to start charging Twitter users $8 a month to be verified and for other special features.
“Lmao at a billionaire earnestly trying to sell people on the idea that ‘free speech’ is actually a $8/mo subscription plan,” she tweeted, prompting a brief reply from Musk: “Your feedback is appreciated, now pay $8.”
The feud continued as Musk shared a screenshot of Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign merch with a $58 price tag for a sweatshirt circled. She responded by saying her workers are unionized, calling Musk a “union buster with an ego problem.”
Ocasio-Cortez later said she was “conveniently” having problems with her Twitter account following the exchanges with Musk. In a tweet, she accused Musk of blocking her account for saying something he didn’t like and questioning his stated commitment to free speech.
Mark Ruffalo got involved on Friday, retweeting Ocasio-Cortez and begging Musk to leave Twitter: “Elon. Please—for the love of decency—get off Twitter, hand the keys over to someone who does this as an actual job, and get on with running Tesla and SpaceX. You are destroying your credibility. It’s just not a good look.”
Musk responded on Thursday, turning again to Ocasio-Cortez: “Hot take: not everything AOC says is accurate.”
Ruffalo, who is also an activist and has advocated for a number of liberal causes over the years, tweeted back: “Maybe so.”
“That’s why having robust filters for dis/misinformation & credible verified users has been a popular feature for people & advertisers alike. We need those safeguards to make sure it’s accurate information, or the app loses credibility, as do you. And people leave,” he said.
Musk and Ocasio-Cortez have frequently clashed in the past, including over unionization and free speech. But other public figures have also expressed concerns over potential changes to content moderation and spoken out against plans to charge $8 per month for the updated Twitter Blue subscription, which was already rolling out as of Saturday.
Earlier in the week, Musk exchanged tweets with author Steven King, who bashed an initial suggestion for the subscription cost to be $20 a month. Other celebrities, including producer Shonda Rhimes and singer Sara Bareilles, announced they were leaving the app shortly after Musk’s takeover last week.
A representative for Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Twitter abruptly laid off half its workforce on Friday, one week after Elon Musk took over.
Employees shared stories about finding out they were axed by being kicked off company platforms.
One person was in a meeting when they suddenly dropped off the call, sources told The New York Times.
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About one week after Tesla billionaire Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover, the company laid off half its workforce, leaving axed employees sharing stories of confusion and chaos over how it all went down.
Top executives were fired last week immediately after Musk took control, but the company’s sweeping layoffs started Friday after a company-wide email sent on Thursday informed staff that some would abruptly lose their jobs the following day. Some employees learned they were fired not through a manager, but because they were kicked off Twitter’s internal systems or locked out of their work laptops without any notice or explanation.
At least one Twitter employee was booted from the company’s system in the middle of a call about Twitter Blue, three sources familiar with the meeting told The New York Times. The group, led by project manager Esther Crawford, was discussing updates to the subscription product and issues when one person just dropped off the call, the sources said.
Musk has been criticized over how the layoffs were handled. Several former Twitter employees filed a lawsuit on Thursday in California accusing Twitter of violating the WARN Act, a federal law that mandates businesses with 100 employees or more to give 60 days notice of mass layoffs.
“This is a master class in how not to do it,” Sandra Sucher, a Harvard University professor who studies layoffs, told the Times, noting it was uncommon to see layoffs of this scale done so rapidly without a clear explanation. “If you were going to rank order ways to upset people, telling them you’re going to do it in advance, without rationale, that is a particularly inhumane way to treat them.”
Rachel Bonn, a former Twitter employee who is eight months pregnant, said she lost access to her work laptop Thursday night hours after Musk said layoffs were coming. Another former Twitter employee, Chris Younie, said he was also abruptly unable to turn on his work laptop or log into his emails at around 3 a.m. on Friday.
In a tweet, Musk said of the layoffs that the company had “no choice” because it was losing more than $4 million per day. He also said that everyone was offered three months of severance pay.
Twitter staffers are expected to receive an email titled “Your Role at Twitter” by 9 a.m. PST on Friday.
If their employment is not impacted, they’ll receive a note on their Twitter email, per a Musk memo.
If their employment is impacted, they will receive a note with next steps via their personal email.
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Thousands of Twitter staffers will be finding out if their jobs are affected by Elon Musk’s layoffs on Friday morning at 9 a.m. pacific time.
Per an internal memo which was sent to employees on Thursday, the terms of people’s employment will be sent to either their personal or professional inboxes, Insider’s Kali Hays reported. Those whose employment is affected will be receive notice in their personal emails. Those whose employment is not affected will be notified via their work emails, per Musk’s memo.
All of the company’s offices are being temporarily closed and all badge access will be suspended, the memo said.
“If you are in an office or on your way to an office, please return home,” the memo stated.
Shortly after 8 p.m. PT on Thursday night, some employees started to get locked out Slack and email, Insider reported.
Some employees have already begun updating their professional channels about being impacted by the layoffs, with many of them expressing frustration at having received no communication of their impending departures.
“I got logged off company Gmail and slack in the evening along with my teammates. No communication or notice whatsoever,” one staffer, whose profile says she worked for Twitter for almost two years, wrote in a LinkedIn post late on Thursday.
Another employee wrote on LinkedIn: “Just got remotely logged out of my company laptop and removed from Twitter Slack. So sad it had to end this way.” The employee had worked as a community manager at Twitter for just over a year, per their profile.
“I had the pleasure of working with amazing Tweeps who showed incredible resilience and compassion during this entire ordeal. This isn’t what we asked for but we made the best of it,” another staff member, a data program manager who had been at the company for eight months, wrote on LinkedIn.
Advice is also pouring in for affected employees.
Lawyer Lisa Bloom tweeted late Thursday: “CA’s “WARN” law requires Twitter to give you 60 days notice of a massive layoff,” adding, “I know you didn’t get that notice.”
Twitter plans to cut about half of its workforce following Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition.
It is planning to order staff to return to the office on a full-time basis after layoffs, per Axios.
The social media company was one of the first to allow staff to work from home indefinitely.
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Twitter’s remote work policy could be coming to an end after an impending layoff, Axios reported on Thursday.
The social media giant plans to cut about 3,700 employees soon after Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the platform, Insider’s Kali Hays reported on Thursday. This represents about half of Twitter’s workforce as of late September.
After the cuts, Twitter plans to order its remaining employees to return to the office on a full-time basis, Axios reported, citing sources inside the company. Employees who need to relocate to be near a Twitter office will have as little as 60 days to do so, according to the media outlet.
The move is significant, as Twitter was one of the first companies to implement policies which allowed employees to permanently work remotely, due to the pandemic.
Then Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey told staff in a May 2020 email with the subject line “#lovewhereyouwork,” that they would be allowed to work from home indefinitely, even after the COVID-19 lockdowns end.
But new Twitter boss Musk is a not a fan of remote work. In May, he issued an ultimatum to executive staff at Tesla — where he is the CEO — telling them to return to the office, or quit.
